TL;DR: Twelve House Democrats sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding answers about ICE's purchase of Penlink surveillance tools. The deadline: March 5, 2026. They want to know the legal justification for tracking phones across entire neighborhoods without warrants, how the data will be stored, and who gets access. ICE spent $2.3 million on Penlink's Webloc (phone tracking) and Tangles (social media scraping) in fall 2025. The agency has a contract history with Penlink exceeding $25 million. Whether DHS responds, and what they say, will reveal how the government defends warrantless mass surveillance.
The Letter
Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) led a group of twelve House Democrats in sending a pointed letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on February 19, 2026. The message: explain yourself.[1]
The signatories include Reps. Yassamin Ansari, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Stephen Lynch, Dave Min, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Emily Randall, Lateefah Simon, Rashida Tlaib, and James Walkinshaw.
Their concerns center on surveillance tools ICE bought from Penlink, a Nebraska-based company. These tools can track the location of every phone in a neighborhood. No warrant required.
What Congress Wants to Know
The lawmakers demanded a staff briefing by March 5 covering:
- Internal communications about acquiring location-based surveillance tools
- Legal justification for mass electronic surveillance without warrants
- Data storage and disposal procedures for collected location data
- Access controls and protocols for monitoring misuse
- Any legal theory that authorizes warrantless tracking of entire communities
The core question buried in bureaucratic language: What gives you the right?
The Tools in Question
In fall 2025, ICE signed a $2.3 million contract with Penlink for access to two surveillance platforms:[2]
Webloc: Phone Tracking Without Warrants
Webloc aggregates location data from mobile data brokers who collect it from apps on your phone. ICE agents can:
- Track specific phones over time
- Identify every device that entered a geographic area
- Map movement patterns to identify home and work locations
- Build comprehensive profiles of where anyone goes
No judge signs off. No probable cause required. The government buys what it legally couldn't seize.
Tangles: Social Media Dossiers
Tangles scrapes data from the open web, deep web, and dark web. It combines web scraping with social media API access to build profiles that include:[3]
- Posting history and keyword analysis
- Location data from posts
- Social graphs connecting accounts to friends and family
- Photos and tagged images
- Facial recognition and sentiment analysis
The tool can detect faces in images, identify individuals, analyze the "sentiment" of posts, and flag accounts for watchlists. Previous reporting suggests it could monitor protest movements, including Black Lives Matter.[4]
Follow the Money
The $2.3 million fall 2025 contract is just the latest payment. ICE's relationship with Penlink runs deep:
- $25+ million in total contracts for monitoring voice, text, and web communications[5]
- $5 million allocated specifically for Webloc and Tangles[6]
- Multi-year relationship spanning multiple contract renewals
Penlink isn't a niche vendor. The DOJ, ATF, DEA, and inspector general offices also hold Penlink licenses. This is government-wide surveillance infrastructure.
Why This Matters
The lawmakers spelled out the danger:
"Location data can reveal intimate details of a person's life, including where they live, work, worship, go to school, or seek medical care. DHS could use these tools to identify individuals for targeting based solely on their presence in certain locations, without a warrant or probable cause and regardless of their citizenship or residency status."
Translation: ICE can identify everyone who attended a church service, visited a clinic, showed up at a protest, or worked at a specific business, then use that information for immigration enforcement.
The letter also references concerns about intimidation of "legal observers and peaceful protesters." Geofence a protest, identify every phone, cross-reference with social media profiles. That's the capability.
The Data Broker Loophole
The Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States (2018) that tracking someone's phone requires a warrant. The Fourth Amendment applies.
The government's workaround: buy the data instead of seizing it.
Apps collect your location. Data brokers aggregate and sell it. Penlink buys access and resells to ICE. The government argues you "voluntarily" shared your location with apps, so constitutional protections don't apply.
Senator Ron Wyden calls this "warrantless surveillance by credit card."
Whether the March 5 deadline produces actual answers may reveal how aggressively the current administration plans to defend this loophole, or expand it.
What Happens on March 5?
Probably nothing good.
Government agencies routinely ignore congressional deadline requests. They might:
- Provide a vague briefing that answers nothing
- Claim national security prevents disclosure
- Miss the deadline entirely and face no consequences
- Actually respond with legal justifications that reveal their constitutional theories
The last option would be most valuable. If DHS articulates its legal position, civil liberties groups can challenge it in court. Silence is harder to fight.
We'll be watching March 5. You should too.
What You Can Do
Contact Your Representative
Ask if they'll join oversight efforts. Congressional pressure works when there's enough of it.
Disable Advertising ID
iPhone: Settings → Privacy → Tracking → Turn off "Allow Apps to Request to Track"
Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads → Delete advertising ID
Audit Location Permissions
Most apps don't need your location. Revoke access aggressively. Check Settings → Privacy → Location Services.
Support Legal Challenges
Organizations like EFF and ACLU are fighting the data broker loophole. Their lawsuits may eventually close it.
References
- Rep. Shontel Brown - Oversight Letter to DHS on ICE's Mass Surveillance Tech (February 2026)
- Flatwater Free Press - This Nebraska Company Is Supplying ICE With Surveillance Tech (February 2026)
- EFF - ICE Is Going on a Surveillance Shopping Spree (January 2026)
- Texas Observer - Texas Police Invested Millions in Shadowy Phone-Tracking Software
- Biometric Update - ICE Use of Commercial Phone Tracking Tool Draws Congressional Scrutiny (February 2026)
- FedScoop - House Democrats Question DHS, ICE Use of Surveillance Tech (February 2026)